At times, I believe the concept of equality is too elusive for people to really grasp, especially when it relates to gender.
No matter how many laws, articles or amendments are in place, instinctual misconceptions always seem to win in society, whether it be the stereotype of the woman as a homemaker or the old-tradition of the damsel in distress.
While these discriminations and prejudices are ignorant and irksome, there is no form of gender discrimination that infuriates me more than gender inequality in athletics.
As a female varsity player in high school and a lifelong soccer player, I’ve grown weary of the aisles of pink in a Sports Authority: pink shorts, racquets, shoe laces, cleats, shin-guards and softball bats.
A stroll down the women’s section in any sports supply store should be enough to convey the point. The hunt for non-pink sports gear is as elusive as the quest for the Holy Grail.
Women are encouraged to rise above the obstacles of a male-dominated world, yet the perception of female athletes is rather warped. We’re expected, even as we’re sweating, to go the distance to remain “feminine.”
However, you will never find me marching out onto any field or court with a bump in my hair and my bangs in my face, though I’ve seen many girls make this decision , they may spend every 10-15 minutes tying back or re-pining wayward hairs into their pink Scrunchies and Snooki-poofs.
I recently experienced a terrible incident of feminizing a woman in all of her athletic endeavors. I am currently part of an intramural broomball team, formed with my floormates.
The referee immediately established that two men and two women had to be on the ice at all times, since it is a co-ed league. Ok, fair enough.
However, when we broke for the half we kept hearing that we were losing, the score 2-1, when each team had only scored once.
Then it was explained to us that if a woman scores, it counts for two points.On my female-dominated team, this still didn’t sit with me as an advantage.
Honestly? I’d rather lose, get beaten down in a game, be humiliated in defeat than to have my shot to the back of the net count for two because I am a woman. Whoever invented this rule must not realize the insulting connotation of this so-called “bonus” to the females in the league.
As if we are so incompetent when compared to the much stronger and more able-bodied men on our teams that they should toss us this wonderful treat like a bone to a starving dog.
How gracious of them to label us a “weak” gender in need of double points to keep up with a normal game. This is the 21st century.
We are a progressive people. I am ready for the athletic community to catch on, and treat us with the equality that each woman deserves. It is time that society understand that my broomball team will beat othersteams because we’re skilled, not because we’re women.
